Education remains in focus for Wie despite sporting success

Dubai: "I just found out my score for my Stats final exam! And I passed! I got a 113/120! Wooooooooooo!"

That's verbatim Michelle Wie, the golfer and Stanford University sophomore, as she announced her success in her final exams on social networking website Twitter!

It says a lot about American pin-up Wie, who has the world at her feet, but is battling to juggle her sporting and academic careers. It's hard for someone like Wie, who is a professional golfer but is still studying and must make compromises and sacrifices to shift between the two.

Thursday, after posting a seven-under 137 after Round Two to go second on the leaderboard, Wie said she won't give up on either.

"I do believe that education is one of the most important things. I've believed in that ever since I started playing golf, before I started playing golf. And I just don't think that even if you become a professional athlete that you have to give up your education," Wie said.

Parents in the UAE and across the world are sure to keep a copy of this — the second instalment of her quote. "Hopefully I can send this message out there; that you can do both, you can go to school and you can come here."

Big day

A big day awaits Wie today as she will hope to build on her second place finish and has to answer another paper later tonight.

"I have an exam [today]; it's on communications, just about the new — like where technology affects the world. I wrote a paper on that — like the new age and digital media and where we are going. I think that's a really important part of what's going to happen and how it's going to shape the world.

"I will probably [be up studying]. They will send it to me and I have to take it down and answer questions and stuff," said Wie, who won the Banamex Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Guadalajara, Mexico, in mid-November.

"I've been studying a lot. [Off the golf course], I feel like going to college, just living on campus, just being a completely different person, hanging out with friends. My friends know nothing about golf. After I won in Mexico, they had to like Google me because they had no idea. But it's just fun. I like to spray paint and do stuff like that and eat, I guess, just hang out."

Wie says she likes tweeting as it helps her maintain a "tight connection" with her fan base. She has a following of 12,493, whom she is in constant touch with through short, crisp messages.

"I actually do enjoy Twittering. I just think it's a cool way [to keep in touch] because when you have interviews and stuff like that, sometimes you feel like your word is not always your word.

Tight connection

"So if I have something to say about how I am doing or if I just want to say anything, it comes straight from me to my fans and I feel like a really tight connection with them. Hopefully, I can increase that and make it better."

A better Round Three and more success in her Communications paper is what she'll also be hoping for Friday.